Lake Tahoe, California - Kirsten | Learn English at EnglishCafe

In the 1940’s,when my father was a child, my grandparents bought a small cabin in the woods near a high mountain lake called Lake Tahoe in the California Sierras.  Around the time they purchased this cabin, the name was changed from Lake Bigler (Bigler was a governor of California) to Lake Tahoe, a mispronunciation of the Washoe Indian word dá’aw, or "lake".  Lake Tahoe has become known worldwide because it is a deep blue, crystal clear lake.

As a child I spent my summers at Lake Tahoe, staying with my grandmother and cousins.  It was heaven to be up there.  We children were often left to our own devices to explore the woods or the lake shore.  I had no idea back then that the lake was 2 million years old, created by sheer luck as massive glaciers shifted, creating a natural damn to trap the high mountain waters as the glaciers melted.  All I knew was that, no matter what we were up to as we approached the lake by car – singing, games, bickering - when our car rounded the bend on North Shore Boulevard and I got that first glimpse of Lake Tahoe, I stopped breathing for a moment.  The environment surrounding the lake has changed and there are many more houses, roads and cars, but to this day I have the same breathless experience every time I first see the cobalt blue waters.

It is a treat to bring your own children to a place you’ve loved your whole life.  We take a trip to Tahoe every summer.  My kids seem to have the same feeling I did about the bright blue color of the lake and the sweet, musty smell of dust and pinecones as a thunderstorm brings rain to the trails on summer afternoons.  The lake water is still quite clear, especially compared to other lakes,  so the kids can open their eyes as they swim and see deep down to the sandy bottom - the rocks and fish and crawdads.  It is an exciting feeling, almost a sense of flying.

Now lake Tahoe is in danger.  It is an old story:  an exquisite spot discovered by too many people (like me and my family).  It’s no one’s fault.  It’s just that the forests and the shores and the water can’t absorb the impact of all these people and stay the same.  Sure enough, the pollutants entering the lake through the air and waterways, have allowed the growth of tiny algae particles.  This is a tricky cycle, where the growth of algae multiplies, and it is hard to turn back.  For a few decades (1960s – 1990’s), the water clarity declined rapidly.   

But people can make a difference, and they have at Lake Tahoe.  I just read a UC Davis report that shows that the numbers are holding steady in the past decade – water clarity has remained the same.  A huge public awareness campaign by a group called League to Save Lake Tahoe (http://www.keeptahoeblue.org/) and a state environmental impact organization  is preventing the further reduction of visibility.  They are doing things like planting native plants along the shore and protecting the streams that run into the lake by educating people about waste disposal.  It is pretty exciting that they see results so quickly.    

Tahoe is just one gem on this planet.  There are so many … but if we can change our ways and save this one gem, it proves we can save the others.